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AidEx 2018 Brussels

The Center for Global Development is a partner in the 2018 AidEx conference in Brussels.

Now in its 8th year, AidEx is established as the leading platform for the international aid and development community to come together and improve the efficiency of aid. AidEx is a two day event, which encompasses a conference, exhibition, meeting areas, awards and workshops. Its fundamental aim is to engage the sector at every level and provide a forum for aid & development professionals to meet, source, supply and learn. AidEx was created to help the international aid and development community engage the private sector in a neutral setting, drive innovation and support the ever-growing need for emergency aid and development programmes.

AidEx is a unique, world-renowned event that works hard to genuinely improve the situation on the ground. Our aim is to bring the international aid community to Brussels. From major NGOs and global policy makers through to innovative suppliers of specialist products, AidEx facilitates relationships that would be otherwise unachievable. The two-day programme of events has been specially designed with networking in mind. The drinks reception, exhibition tours and other organised activities encourage our audience to build long-lasting relationships that will enrich their future in the sector.

Each year the AidEx Steering Committee discuss a topic that the event should focus on to make sure it remains current and delivers what our visitors and suppliers need. Our past conference themes have included Localisation, Sustainable Development, Innovation and Collaboration. The 2017 theme was 'Aid and Development Effectiveness: Results through transparency and accountability.' The 2018 theme is: Revolution in the digital age: safeguarding a future for all. How can technology contribute to a positive social impact?

Upcoming Events

When RCTs are not an option, geospatial data can be a powerful tool for evaluating development projects – opening up opportunities to understand what works, what doesn’t, and why - at a substantially lower time and cost. Dr. Ariel BenYishay will provide an overview of the growing field of geospatial impact evaluation highlighting how the increasing availability of geo-referenced intervention and outcome data offers many new opportunities for research and evaluation across the development field that can be just as (if not more) effective as randomized control trials (RCTs). Dr. BenYishay will share a recent case study using geospatial data that measured the impacts of Chinese development activities on sensitive forests in Tanzania and Cambodia between 2000 and 2014 that shows how powerful this tool can be.

The “glass ceiling” in finance has barely cracked. Compared to the available talent pool, there is still a large gap between the representation of men and women in leadership positions in banks and bank supervision agencies worldwide. In her presentation, Ratna Sahay will summarize new data on banking sector characteristics and performance, as well as the share of women on the boards of directors and banking supervision agency boards. The data indicate that—contrary to common perceptions—many low- and middle-income countries have a higher share of women in bank boards and banking supervision agency boards compared to advanced economies. Together with her IMF colleagues, Sahay uses this new dataset to explore the link between gender and financial stability. She will argue that the presence of women, as well as a higher share of women, on bank boards and banking supervision agencies may contribute to greater bank stability.

World Bank Group President Dr. Jim Yong Kim will join CGD President Masood Ahmed to discuss the future of multilateralism, the Bank’s efforts to maximize resources for development, and the critical importance of investing in people to meet tomorrow’s challenges.

Women are overrepresented in the informal sector worldwide, often stuck in dangerous, insecure, low-paid jobs. Waste picking in particular is a highly vulnerable and risky form of informal employment. In 1995, India’s Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) organized women waste pickers in Ahmedabad into a cooperative to improve their working conditions and livelihoods. Over time, this informal arrangement evolved into Gitanjali – a women-owned and -run social enterprise, that produces a full range of stationery products for large multinational corporations, including Staples, IBM, and Goldman Sachs. What difference has Gitanjali made to the lives and opportunities of women waste pickers in India? What are the implications for women’s social enterprises in other countries? What are the challenges that remain to be overcome? The Center for Global Development is delighted to bring together some of the key private sector partners that helped Gitanjali generate social value, along with practitioners from the public sector and multilateral financial institutions, for a robust discussion about job options for poor women in low paid, informal occupations, including a model entrepreneurship venture. The event will be informed by the CGD report, The Gitanjali Cooperative: A Social Enterprise in the Making. Copies of the report’s executive summary will be provided. Light refreshments will be available.

The launch of the Cameroon Cataract Development Impact Loan—a Development Impact Bond (DIB) to provide cataract surgery services via a social enterprise model—marks a key moment in the history of results-based financing.

Numerous studies find that child health suffers when children are exposed to conflict, and armed conflicts are more likely to occur in poor countries with weak states. Nigeria is among the most conflict-prone countries in the world, experiencing the highest number of conflict-related deaths of all Sub-Saharan African countries in many of the years since 2000, with a peak in 2012. In this paper, researchers at the Urban Institute and the Center for Global Development are studying the relationship between child health and conflict in Nigeria by combining geo-coded data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) of 2013 and the Social Conflict Analysis Database. In both urban and rural areas of Nigeria, they find significant increases in child wasting (acute malnutrition) in 2013 associated with proximity to violent conflict in 2012. In urban areas, infant mortality also increased significantly in 2003-2013, when the mother was exposed to conflict during pregnancy. They will discuss these findings and their implications, as well as some of the challenges to studying health in conflict-torn places.

Please join CGD for a conversation with four former directors of USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health. These four leaders served between 1986 and 2013—and their tenures have spanned US administrations from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama. Since the Office’s inception in 1969, the US government has played a substantial role in supporting expanded access to voluntary family planning around the world through technical assistance, diplomatic and policy engagement, and financial support. But differences in policy across administrations have meant that US leadership in international family planning has often faced periods of uncertainty. CGD is convening this panel to revisit historic experiences and to shed light on lessons learned that may be used to inform stakeholders in the current landscape.

Due to the potential for snow tomorrow, we are unfortunately canceling this event. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to see you at CGD soon.

Please join Crispian Olver for a discussing of his latest book How to Steal a City: The Battle for Nelson Mandela Bay: An Inside Account. How to Steal a City is an insider account of this intervention, which lays bare how the administration was entirely captured and bled dry by a criminal syndicate, how factional politics within the ruling party abetted that corruption, and how a comprehensive clean-up was eventually conducted.